Author's Note

Have your weekly dose of crazy ponies and dark magic a day early. :)

Chapter 12: A Cozy Celebration - Part 1

I'm on my daily walk around the Crystal Empire the next day, minding my own business as usual, when I hear somepony whisper, "Psst! Queen Moonlight!"

I look around, but can't find the source of the sound, so I continue walking. Nothing else happens for a few minutes. Then I hear a succession of clicks and squeaks that roughly translates to, "Look up, I'm sitting on the roof."

I look at all of the rooftops and spot the little bat pony filly, the one who arrived with Skywalker's friends. She gives me a big toothy grin and flutters down towards me, then hovers in mid-air in front of me, her tiny purple wings flapping ten to the dozen.

"Hi there," she says. "My name's Lucky."

I smile. "Hello, Lucky. What can I do for you?"

"I, um, I wanted to talk about Cozy Glow."

My smile widens. I wonder what trouble she's got herself into this time. "Oh?"

"Well, um, she and I both go to the same school now, and me and a few other foals in the class got together and started wondering about her. She's not that good at making friends, and we don't really know why, but, um, we thought maybe a way of making her realise we want to be her friends would be to throw her a party? If we're allowed," she adds hastily.

She whistles and about ten other foals pop out of their hiding places behind hedges and gates leading to other gardens. All of a sudden, I'm surrounded by a dozen smiling faces, being asked if they could throw a surprise party for Cozy Glow.

I don't really know the first thing about throwing a foal's birthday party, since I think I only went to a party once or twice, but what I do know is that it can't be any worse than the Grand Galloping Gala. "I don't see why not," I muse. "Of course, I'll have to speak to King Sombra, but I don't think he'll say no to a little group of colts and fillies celebrating one of his best friend's birthdays."

"We'll have to start straight away!" a colt exclaims. He seems a few years younger than the rest of them. "We need to make invites for everypony. Maybe they could say: 'You're invited to Princess Cozy Glow's royal birthday party'."

Oh my Celestia, this is adorable. I might not know much about birthdays, but my inner child is far too excited to let me back out of a challenge like this. I might even be able to draw out Cozy Glow's inner foal and convince her that the world isn't always so grim. Poor filly. I haven't done enough for her really, so maybe this is a chance to make amends for all of that too.

"It's a lovely idea. Really. Cozy is going to love this. But the only problem now is that I have to try and keep it a secret from her."

They all giggle. "Don't worry, we won't tell her either." I recognise her by her light pink mane and red coat: her name is Ruby.

"Now all I have to do is speak to King Sombra, and I'm sure we'll be able to do something."

"Thank you!" they chorus. I say goodbye to them and feel a warm fuzzy feeling inside that I haven't had in a while.

Later, I find a moment to talk to Sombra about the idea the foals have, and ask if we could do something special for Cozy's one thousand and seventy second birthday.

"No," he tells me. "We have all six Bearers and their Elements, plus Rabia is now on our side and we have the beginnings of an army forming. We are in the perfect position to turn on the offensive and attack Canterlot. Now isn't the time for birthday parties."

"And what about our honeymoon? Will that still be happening?"

"It depends on the situation."

"Ouch," I say, annoyed. "I don't know what should make me more upset. The fact that we won't be able to go on a honeymoon together, or the fact that I made a deal with those foals, and now I have to be the villain again and tell them that it's not happening. I don't like disappointing others."

"I know, but we have priorities, Moonlight."

"Please?" I beg.

"My love, we have to think about looking after our kingdom and ourselves before we start throwing parties and going on holidays."

"Fine, I'll go tell the foals that there won't be a party. But I'm not taking the blame if they storm in here with a thousand-signature petition." I begin to trudge out of the room.

He sighs, "Moonlight, this is ridiculous, but it it makes you happy, then yes, we will hold a surprise party for Cozy Glow, and yes, we will go on a little trip together. Are you happy now, my little bat?"

"Yes. Thank you." I walk back over to him and rub my head against his. He wraps a foreleg around me and pulls me closer to him, stroking my make softly like he always does. Yet it doesn't feel right. I look up at him, and I can tell he's unhappy without reading his mind.

"What's wrong?"

"What is wrong, Moonlight? We are resting on our laurels when we should be fighting Celestia, working towards defeating her once and for all."

"We are. A little party and a few days in Starlight's village won't hurt. Whilst we're visiting Starlight we'll probably bring along a ton of ponies to protect the village just in case the Solar Guards decide to visit her."

"We still have a lot of work to do."

"But we need a break. I don't think you realise this, but Skywalker is absolutely broken inside. Swift and Hanzal probably don't feel that great either. New ponies and creatures have turned up and we need to think about them and their responsibilities too. We have to slow down a bit."

He lifts my chin up with a hoof and my eyes meet his. "I know, my love. I know."

I close my eyes and lean closer to him. We remain like that for a few minutes, sitting there silently and not needing to read each other's minds. We've achieved the impossible already, and Sombra's right, there is so much more we can and need to achieve, but we also need to enjoy the calm and the quiet more often.

"Gee, stop it. I can deal with romance, but it's the two of you. There's something about you both that makes me feel sick."

"Cozy," I grumble, "maybe leave the two of us alone to enjoy each other's company?"

"Nah, I like annoying you."

My Celestia, that filly. All the more reason to throw her this surprise party. Maybe if I do something completely unexpected like that, she'll treat me with a shred of decency.

Now all I have to do is try to plan it without her getting in the way.

At dinner, there's a knock on the front door and a guard sprints into the dining room. "Queen Moonlight, Your Majesty, there's a little filly who says she wants to speak to you," he informs me.

"Ok." I get up and tell the others, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

I trot through the castle corridors and am led by the guard into the lounge, where I find Ruby. She's sitting on the sofa carefully sipping a glass of apple juice. She looks up at me and smiles. "We've sorted out some of the invitations, Queen Moonlight. I was just wondering if King Sombra said we were allowed?"

"He said yes."

"Yay!" she squeals. Then, quieter, "Now what do we sort out next? Balloons? Streamers? Food? Games?"

"Hmm, some games to make the party more interesting."

"What about pin-the-tail-on-the-pony?"

Nostalgia attacks me from out of nowhere. How do I still remember playing this as a foal with my own friends?! It was centuries ago! "Brilliant idea," I tell her, although I have a feeling Lucky is most likely to win, since she has the advantage of echolocation.

"But where should we have the party?"

An idea hits me. "Maybe we could have a few of the party games in the throne room, and then we could go to the dining room. Have you gone in there before?"

"Once, and it's huge. Not everypony in the class wants to come to the party, so if it's just everypony who was there this morning and a few grown-ups it'll be perfect!"

A few alarm bells go off in my head. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but why don't the other foals want to join in?"
She hesitates. "Some of them, mainly the fillies... They think Cozy's weird, and they don't like spending time with her. She is a little, but that doesn't mean she can't be friends with us. I think she's really cool, though. She's a pegasus so she can fly, and she's like a princess too."

My heart is melting faster than ever. Foals at this age are adorable. Something has to be done before I squee in front of them like the Element Bearers would.

"She is a princess, and with this party, hopefully we'll make her feel like one too."

Over the next few days, I spend increasing amounts of time around the foals, helping them prepare for the party. They've made the invites and a whole ton of decorations themselves. I've spoken to Shimmer the cook and she says she's going to bake a cake for the foals to enjoy. Lucky herself has introduced me to the wonderful food known as 'popcorn': tiny kernels of corn heated until they explode which can then be covered in a topping of your choice. A treat that wasn't discovered until after my banishment to the moon with Luna, and something I can't believe I've never tasted before because oh my goodness, it's absolutely delicious when you add toffee or sugar.

However, Cozy begins to suspect that something is going on when the foals keep coming into the castle to talk to me. She starts trailing around after me every minute of the day that she can, keeping an eye on where I'm going and who I'm talking to. That sneaky filly even tries to walk on the ceiling and use her wings to keep her up there in the hope that I won't notice her, but she soon gives up after falling a couple of times.

Eventually, on the third day of trying to avoid her, she corners me in the lounge and begins to interrogate me right away. "So, Moonlight, why are you speaking to every single foal in the neighborhood except me all of a sudden? Don't you have important grown-up stuff to be doing like planning invasions and bucking your-"

"Language!" I moan at her."Why are you spending your own precious time asking me stupid questions when you have better things to be doing? And why is it your business?"

"I'm on to you, just remember that." She struts off without another word. She's a nightmare, I swear. All of this effort to make a surprise party, and she's sticking her nose in my business. Then, when we do finally reveal the secret, she'll probably say something like, "Gee, is that all?" or some other cutting remark.

Two days before the party, we have almost everything ready. On the thirtieth of June, at four in the afternoon, the party will start. There will be all of the usual party games: pin-the-tail-on-the-pony, pass the parcel, musical statues and a pinata. (Another thing that I never had as a foal, but I already know that Cozy will love the idea of whacking a cardboard Celestia full of sweets with a baseball bat.) There will be enough junk food for all of the foals as well as the adults who I've asked to help me keep an eye on the little ones. The only thing I've had trouble with is trying to find out what sort of presents to get her.

She's never going to wear a little-girly dress, jewellery or make-up. She's already managed to 'acquire' a few ribbons and bows for her mane and tail, and I heard her saying that she's going to wear this huge bow covered in golden sequins in her mane on her birthday. The comic books she loves are from the Crystal Library and she's read most of them, so there's not much point in buying any of those for her. (Not to mention that she shouldn't be reading them in the first place. I had a leaf through one of them and some of the scenes in there made me feel slightly uneasy.) I can't see her playing with dolls either, though. I want to get her something that she'll cherish, something unique for her to remember me by in years to come. Yet I don't know enough about her to know what she really likes.

The foals hold a meeting and I turn up to express my worries about getting the perfect gift. The rest of them seem just as clueless as I am, until little Lucky pipes up, I might know something that you could get her."

"I'm all ears," I say immediately.

"Ok, everypony, don't laugh at this, but... What about a teddy bear or a plushie?"

I have to stuff my hoof in my mouth to stop myself from bursting into a fit of giggles. I compose myself and ask her, "A plushie?! You mean, one of those little stuffed horse dolls that are enchanted to say stuff to the pony holding it?"

"Uh-huh. It's not much, and I know it sounds silly, but I heard something about her having a teddy a long time ago that she really loved, and I thought, well, maybe she'd like a new one."

Suddenly, the memory comes flooding back to me of a time when there was an unexpected attack from a ton of Solar Guards, and whilst we were watching the battle she told me about her beloved teddy and how horrible her old family were. Lucky isn't mad; she's a genius. It's such an obvious, clichéd answer, but it's amazing at the same time.

"Oh my goodness. I don't think you realise, but that's the perfect gift for Cozy. Thanks, Lucky!"

"No problem." She beams with pride.

"Now all I have to do is find a really good teddy bear for her. Any ideas?"

Everypony turns towards a little blue unicorn filly, who simply says, "My mum does a lot of sewing, and she sells the things she makes sometimes."

Life is odd. Sometimes it will throw a million obstacles at you at once, and other times it makes everything as convenient as possible. This time, thankfully, it's the latter. A gift from the stars themselves.

I grin at the unicorn. "Lead the way. I've got a birthday present to buy for the craziest little filly I've ever met."